


Absolution

by nice_girls_play



Series: The Long Road Home [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, HP: EWE, M/M, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Sirius Black Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 15:03:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5131976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nice_girls_play/pseuds/nice_girls_play
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one-sided conversation after the final battle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absolution

"I get it now."

Severus blinks slowly at the ceiling, brain slowly crawling through the fog brought on by sedation. On the other side of the fog is sensation: the itchy bandage around his neck, the reek of blood and iodine, Skele-Gro and Dreamless Sleep, the effluvia of triage; the rawness in Black's voice. He can feel the restraints around his wrists, keeping his arms immobilized; the dried potions cracking in the corners of his mouth; the dull heaviness below his chin that makes turning his head a monumental task. 

He finally manages it, turning to look at the man seated in the window a few feet from his bed, smoking a cigarette. Twenty years on, Black's silhouette in the dark has not changed, haloed by silver grey moonlight and red-orange ash.

"If I'd been sorry -- _really_ sorry -- it would have been me that stopped it. Me that went in and got you."

In that moment, he knows it was Sirius who shoved the bezoar down his throat, knocking out two of his teeth in the process. Sirius who staunched his hemorrhaging throat with his own hands and dragged him from the Shrieking Shack back to the castle. 

"Is it enough that I'm sorry now?"

Severus watches as Black's silhouette slips behind the fog once more.


End file.
